… what's a netbook running Chrome and Linux but a calculator in drag? It's fundamentally complete. It's built entirely of plastic, silicon (sand) and a tiny amount of rare metals. All the technology development costs have been fully realized, and there's no vendor with true monopoly control. IP attacks won't work if China and India decide not to cooperate…

Buy the pipes, which at this time probably means building cheap to free wireless broadband networks in key markets.

Give away XP. Charge $5 a copy for netbook manufacturers.

Buy a slice of Dell and start making Microsoft brand netbooks.

Create a version of Windows 7 for the netbook (they've probably already done this) that's tied to Windows Live.

Become a bank.

Build a retail/transaction service across 1-5.

It's a low margin business, but they'll own it end-to-end. They ought to be able to soak up an average of $100/year/user from 2 billion users.

The patent attacks will slow things down. I’m sure this strategy has its own risks. The EU won’t like it for one thing. On the other hand, Microsoft is facing disruptive annihilation. They’ve decided they don’t have a choice.